Conventional voicemail systems receive, store and provide voicemail messages for subscribers of the voicemail system. A “subscriber” is typically a person that has a relationship with the provider of the voicemail system. For example, the voicemail service may be provided by the local telephone company through which the subscriber receives local telephone service. In this case, the subscriber may pay for the voicemail service directly or indirectly through the purchase of other services, such as local phone service.
A problem with conventional voicemail systems occurs when a subscriber wishes to change service providers. For example, when a subscriber wishes to change local service providers, the subscriber must cancel local phone service with a first provider and sign up for local phone service with a second provider. When this occurs, the subscriber's voicemail service is automatically cancelled as well.
When the voicemail service is cancelled, any saved voicemail messages are typically lost. In addition, registering for a new voicemail service is often a cumbersome process that may include setting up a voice mailbox, designating certain telephone numbers for call forwarding, etc.